AS IF to make up for his signing with Gold Coast United being the worst kept secret in the A-League, Shane Smeltz has got himself caught up in a transfer...is controversy too strong?...we’ll say ‘situation’ that begs only one question – What the smeg is going on?!
Everyone has known about the interest Smeltz has attracted from Genclerbirligi S.K. for some time, only for it to supposedly subside, and all of a sudden reappear with reports that Genclerbirligi’s sister club Hacettepe has signed a deal with Smeltz (technically this can’t happen, all Hacettepe players are under special contract to Genclerbirligi).
If this is true, Smeltz is possibly breaking any number of contract laws and regulations: not only has he supposedly negotiated a deal with another club after apparently signing a contract with Gold Coast last month, but he has also supposedly signed a contract with Genclerbirligi /Hacettepe.
Smeltz’ agent, Leo Karis has accused Phoenix of trying to “cash in” on Smeltz and Gold Coast CEO Clive Mensink has effectively accused Phoenix of acting illegally in this situation.
These comments however, suggest that Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata or other club officials engineered the move themselves - an insinuation that in my eyes borders on defamation as no evidence of this has been forthcoming. It also ignores the fact that the bulk of any fee would apparently go to Gold Coast; Pignata has been quoted as saying Phoenix would get less than six figures out of the deal.
According to press comments by Pignata, he did exactly what he was meant to do. He received an offer from an overseas club; as Smeltz has an overseas offer clause he contacted Shane Smeltz to ask if he was interested (according to Pignata he was very interested); and then left it up to Smeltz to agree to a contract and get permission from Gold Coast United to make the move.
We can’t discount the Phoenix didn’t do something dodgy, but in my admittedly somewhat biased eyes, on balance the evidence appears to suggest they didn’t.
Given the rather angry reaction of Karis over the deal, and the refusal of the Turkish Clubs’ agent in Australia, Dragan Jevtic, to comment on the supposed transfer, one might infer that Genclerbirligi/Hacettepe made an offer and Smeltz either negotiated the contract himself, or gave permission to an agent other than Karis to take care of the details for him.
A possible scenario is that Jevtic was involved as either the contact between the two clubs, or acted as Smeltz agent in the deal, something Smeltz is allowed to let him do in accordance with FFA agent regulations despite his exclusive agreement with Karis, provided Smeltz gave him written permission (which would explain part of Karis’ apparent anger).
After all, the only reasons Jevtic would need to refuse to comment are that he was somehow involved, or he is obliged to stay silent on all Genclerbirligi/Hacettepe transfers, though if the latter were the case would he not point that out to the media?
Given the speculation on Smeltz’s behaviour around the time of his agreeing to a deal with Gold Coast, I’m not too surprised about the fiasco this has become.
The poor bloke obviously has no idea how to deal with these things and let’s face it; he’s never had as many clubs interest in him in his life.
If Smeltz has done something wrong, it may be that his fault is due to his naivety. Whatever the supposed ‘facts’ of the matter, the only people who appear to be acting entirely within their rights are Gold Coast United in refusing to let Smeltz out of his impending contract.
